Make your voice heard in political process

I had the privilege last week of covering both the Democrat and Republican caucus meetings as the electoral process for this year began in earnest.

Last time around in 2012, Josh Huntsman my former co-reporter, covered the Democrat caucus and I took care of the Republican caucus. I remember Josh’s coverage reported that more than 100 Democrats showed up for that meeting — a record amount.

Then, when I covered the Republican caucus the next evening, the large band room at Cedar High School was filled with Republicans and they were still lined up to register when the precinct meeting started. Organizers even had to set up more chairs to accommodate everyone who showed up.

Although there was a healthy attendance of 74 at the Democrats’ caucus last Tuesday and the Republican precinct caucus at North Elementary School Thursday was not exactly empty, there were quite a few empty chairs at both.

The main reason for this reduced participation in both parties has been that there is not a presidential election this year. Although I would not argue that a presidential election is important, I believe that there are still important issues requiring attention in the non-presidential ones.

There is still a great deal of work to do on the national level, such as getting spending and the national debt under control, and on the state level in terms of continuing to strive for the Governor’s Prosperity 2020 initiative that has the goal of at least 66 percent of the state’s adults holding a post-secondary degree or certificate.

There are also plenty of issues to deal with on the local level, which is closest to the people and has more of a profound effect than people realize. For example, it is possible that the City of Enoch will conduct its referendum vote this year on the property tax increase approved by last year’s city council, which will have a huge effect on the city’s budget decisions going forward.

While this year the area will once more choose who will represent us in the United States House of Representatives, we will also choose who represents us on the state and county levels and who will enforce the law as well with elections for both state Attorney General and Iron County Sheriff.

Although you may not have attended the caucus — and I do understand that not everyone is able to do that — there are many ways to make your voice heard. Some candidates may be have to go to a primary if they don’t make it through their party convention with enough delegate votes to move on to the general election, so you can vote in the primary.

Then, of course, by all means vote in November’s general election because if you do not, what business do you have complaining about way issues are handled?